HC orders notice to authorities

The Madras High Court on Monday ordered issue of notice to the authorities, including Director of Medical Education, on a PIL seeking to set up a committee to determine admission fee for MBBS course and monitor its effective implementation with provisions of penalising errant institutions.

The First Bench, comprising acting Chief Justice Satish K. Agnihotri and Justice M.M.Sundresh before which the PIL filed by one M.Swaminathan came up, directed the authorities to reply within four weeks.

Students hailing from rich and influential background, without much ado, grab management quota seats in private medical colleges under affiliation to State Medical University and all seats in medical institutions under deemed universities in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on payment of hefty capitation fees, the petitioner claimed.

“If it is allowed unchecked, the gross commercialization of medical sector, now confined to corporate hospitals, will certainly contaminate the entire public health care system,” he said.

The petitioner said service-minded medical professionals have become a rare breed now.

Alleging that the noble profession of medicine has turned into a veritable gold mine for inscrutable medical graduates, the petitioner said “the young medical professionals, produced by these private medical universities, have become like businessmen to make profits out of the investment, here the capitation fee.”

The petitioner claimed an MBBS seat is being sold for nearly Rs one crore and said a state-level admission and fee regulatory committee for private medical colleges is required at this juncture to regulate the commercialization which requires provisions of penalising errant institutions.

He sought a direction to the state goverment to constitute a committee to determine admission fee for medical courses and monitor the effective implementation with provisions of penalising the errant institutions.